NEWARK — City police arrested nine men and confiscated half-a-dozen firearms in a series of operations ranging from motor vehicle stops to investigating reports of gang activity, officials said Monday.

"Each of these arrests and weapons recoveries represents another potential tragedy or violent crime averted," Police Director Samuel DeMaio said in a statement.

Police spokesman Detective Todd McClendon gave the following descriptions of the suspects and of the episodes leading to their arrests:

Two men were arrested in each of three incidents, while three were arrested in a fourth. There was no gunfire and no one was injured.

The arrests began Thursday afternoon when police in an unmarked vehicle from Newark’s 5th precinct approached an area along Stratford Place where there had been numerous complaints and a tip of gang activity in the area, as well as people who were armed.

Getting out of their car, officers saw a man later identified as Jayden Jackson, 22, of Newark, slip a silver handgun under his pants leg near his ankle. Simultaneously, his companion, Tony Johnson, 26, yelled "5-0" to alert Jackson of the police presence.

The pair took off running with officers in pursuit, Jackson running into a nearby house and dumping his gun, and Johnson, towards a nearby bodega, but police caught them both.

Jackson had been arrested previously six times and was charged with gun possession, and Johnson was charged with obstruction of the administration of law for alerting his partner to the police presence and resisting arrest.

That night, units from the Gang Enforcement Unit nabbed two gun-wielding men who had been hanging out on the corner of South Orange and Poe avenues.

When the officers left their car, the two men, Tamir Scott, 30, and Terrence Lane, 36, took off running.

Lane discarded a loaded .380-caliber gun that was later identified as having been stolen in Alabama in 2004.

Scott was also captured and found with a .22-caliber gun in his jacket pocket.

The two men, who between them have been convicted of felonies seven times, were charged with weapons possession counts and resisting arrest.

In another gun confiscation just before midnight Thursday, officers pulled up on a double-parked car on South 15th Street and ordered the two occupants out of the car.

The handle of a gun was seen in the center console, and the two occupants, Xavier Wright, and Ramal Gibbs, both 23 and from Newark, were arrested on weapons and drug charges.

Then early Friday morning, three men were arrested after the car they were driving in was seen driving erratically in the city’s North Ward. In addition to marijuana found inside the car, officers confiscated a loaded .380 handgun.

The occupants of the car, Sharief Gilmer, 27, of East Orange, Alfateem Johnson, 22, of Newark and a 16-year-old juvenile from Newark, were all charged with weapons possession. Gilmer was charged with motor vehicle offenses, including driving without a license.

Earlier that week, on Wednesday, police arrested two men who had crashed a car into a utility pole at 15th Avenue and South Seventh Street and led police on a brief foot pursuit before being captured.

Kervin Derlphonse, 28, was charged with weapons possession after police found a .38-caliber revolver on him; Howard Banks, 25, who was found with a small amount of marijuana was charged with drug possession.